Veteran Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev says that authorities in Russian-annexed Crimea have transferred his arrested son from the peninsula to Russia's Krasnodar region.

Dzhemilev said in an interview with Ukraine's Kanal 24 television channel on September 29 that the Kremlin is holding his son, Khaiser Dzhemilev, hostage to put pressure on him.

Khaiser Dzhemilev was arrested in May 2013 after allegedly shooting a friend dead.

Crimea's authorities reopened the investigation after Russia annexed Crimea in March. They said in June that Khaiser Dzhemilev is being held on three charges under the Russian Criminal Code, including murder and the illegal possession of weapons.

In May, Moscow-backed authorities of Crimea barred Mustafa Dzhemilev, who has strongly protested the annexation, from entering the peninsula.